Lucien Bouchard

Lucien Bouchard (22 December 1938-) was Premier of Quebec from 29 January 1996 to 8 March 2001, succeeding Jacques Parizeau and preceding Bernard Landry. Bouchard, a Quebecois nationalist and social democrat, was the founder of the Bloc Quebecois and the leader of Parti Quebecois from 1996 to 2001.

Biography
Lucien Bouchard was born in Saint Coeur-de-Marie, Quebec, Canada on 22 December 1938, and he studied law at Lavar University, working as a successful private lawyer for twenty years. He was appointed as ambassador to France in 1988, and he was elected to the House of Commons as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and became a member of Brian Mulroney's cabinet. He was convinced by the failure of the 1987 Meech Lake Accord that Quebec had no future within Canada, and he founded the Bloc Quebecois in 1990; it became the second largest parliamentary party nationwide in 1993. He became the leader of the official opposition, and he was known for his fiery rhetoric, his support for Quebecois independence, and his charismatic intervention in the 1995 Quebec sovereignty referendum. He resigned from the federal Bloc Quebecois to become Premier of Quebec in January 1996 and lead the Parti Quebecois, and he balanced the province's budget and implemented universal child care and pharmacare. His failure to revive the pro-independence cause, however, led him to resign in 2001, and he returned to his legal career.